Improvement in devices for locking nuts



UNITED STATEs SAMUEL B. LOWE, OF CHATTANOOGA, TENNESSEE.

IMPROVEMENT IN DEVICES FOR LOCKING NUTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 123,831,^ dated February 20, 1872.

consists in a slotted plate constructed as hereinat'ter shown anddescribed.

lu the accompanying drawing, Figure l represents a side view, showing the slotted locking plate applied. Fig. 2 isa view of the locking plate detached.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

A is the locking-plate, sometimes called a washer-plate. B is the iish-plate. O represents the bolt-nuts. D D are slots in my improved locking-plate. The plate itseltl is made of iron, one and a half inch, more or less,

wide, and one-eighth of an inch, more or less,

l in thickness. The slots D D are eut from each end, and may be of any length and width, according to size ofthe bolts and their distance from each other; but in all cases the slot-s must allow of the longitudinal movement ot' the plate, and the plate must be ot' sufficient length to allow the ends to project more or less beyond the nuts, as seen in Fig. l. The plate is placed over the bolts, and the nuts are turned tightly on, and then one or bot-h of the ends E are turned or bent up at a right angle against the side ofthe nut, as seen at f, which etl'ectually prevents the nut from turning back on the bolt. The nut may be secure- 1y locked when in any position, as seen in the drawing.

The constantvibration produced by thepassing trains willafter a while, loosen the bolt, and the nuts will require turning up or tightening. To do this, the turned-up ends or locks f, one or both, are bent down with a hammer, so as to allow the ,nuts to be turned up with a wrench and tightened, after which the other end, E, one or both, are turned up, and the nuts are locked as before. Should one or two of the ends E show sign of fracture, as to make it undesirable to use the metal in the same place again, 'the slots D will allow the plate to be moved endwise, so that the met-al may be bent in a new place. v

This locking-plate is very easily manufactured, and readily applied, and changed in position, thus rendering it cheap, durable, and secure.

This distance between the holes of the iishy plate need not be arbitrary; most manufacturers of rails make a slight ditterenoe in this distance, which seldom exceeds one inch. This lock is available in all these cases.

I am aware that plates having end slots and lips to lock the two end nuts, and also two central apertures to receive the two middle nuts which hold a fish-plate to its rail, are not new; but this constructioncompels these lock-plates to be rigid and unadjustable, while by employing a separate and independent plate for every two nuts each becomes adjustable, and it is no longer required that the middle nuts should be always placed in one arbitrary position. I am also aware that a plate having alon g slot at one end and a notch or short slot at the other, and which is applied between the threads ot a screw, isnot new. This construction would not admit ot adjustment on the two nuts of a fish-plate, because the movement forward under one nut would remove it from the other.

Having thus describedall that is necessary to a full understanding of my invention, what I esteem to be new, and desire to protect by Letters Patent, is-

The plate A, having only a long slot and two long arms at each end, to adapt it to be applied adjustably to a pair of nuts, as and for the purpose described.

S. B. LOWE.

Witnesess:

T. B. MosHER, l GEORGE W. MABEE.

PATENT OFFICE. l 

